Speed talk upcoming LP2: “I think we can scratch a little bit deeper”

Speed‘s 2024 debut album Only One Mode was one of our favorite albums of 2024 and one of the best hardcore debut LPs in recent memory, and the Australian band are already getting ready to follow it with LP2. They’re currently in California for Coachella, where they incited mosh pits and stage-dives on the indoor Sonora stage on Friday night (4/11), and where they’ll do it again this coming Friday (4/18). They told us backstage at the fest that as soon it’s over, they’re heading right back into the studio with “LP2 on the horizon” and an EP in between.

“Now that we’ve got a debut LP under our belts and a couple other records,” said vocalist Jem Siow, “we’re just trying to see if we can unlock a little more identity in our sound.”

Guitarist Josh Clayton adds, “It’s hard to do as a hardcore band. There’s very firm boundaries on what you can kinda do as a band. We’re not necessarily looking to challenge the boundaries at all, but I think we’re just trying to challenge the kind of style that we’ve created for ourselves.”

Jem continues, “We’ve accepted that we are actually ‘artists’ [laughs], which is a crazy and amazing thing to say. But also as a personal endeavor, can we create some even better music? Can I push myself now to make something really, really special? We love everything we’ve done, but I think we can scratch a little bit deeper.”

Only One Mode ever so slightly pushed the boundaries of hardcore, with little flourishes like flutes, record scratches, and very brief bursts of clean vocals, and Jem seemed to imply that we might hear more genre-defying moves like that in the new material. “We are obviously hardcore kids through and through,” he said, “but we’re pretty open-minded people and we’ve had a really, maybe different experience growing up where we grew up, in the context that we’ve lived in, and been exposed to a bunch of different styles. With Speed, it’s just about putting our personalities at the forefront and just try to champion who we are as people and pursuing the ultimate authenticity that we can get in this life. And so that’s why those little elements are sprinkled in, but now we’re trying to see what else we can kind of inspire ourselves with.”

Watch the full interview clip and footage of Speed’s Coachella mosh pit below.

As Jem mentions in the interview, they’re also doing a North American tour with their Bangkok-based Flatspot labelmates Whispers, including a show at NJ’s Black Box on May 28. All dates here.